Biomimetic Nanocomposites for Biomedical Applications

In the past few decades, nanotechnology has made tremendous progress. Materials exhibit novel physicochemical properties in the nanoscale size range. Hence, nanomaterials are promising for various applications including catalysis, energy storage, electronics, sensors, semiconductors, drug delivery, bioimaging, and tissue engineering. However, because of a lack of biological properties, their use is limited. In advanced biomedical engineering, new functional materials are being developed by simply mimicking the characteristics of natural materials either chemically, physically, or biologically. In this chapter, we discuss such biomimetic nanocomposites, their synthesis strategies, and their biomedical applications such as drug delivery and tissue engineering. We provide a brief overview of various strategies for synthesizing biomimetic nanomaterials, including solvent casting and particulate leaching, phase separation/inversion, gas foaming, electrospinning, self-assembly, and rapid prototyping. We comprehensively describe biomimetic drug-delivery systems using hydrogels, liposomes, micelles, dendrimers, and polymeric nanocomposites. Biomimetic-nanocomposite-based scaffolds composed of cells can be used in tissue engineering because they have appropriate mechanical properties, recapitulate the extracellular matrix, and provide a microenvironment that enhances tissue regeneration. We also systematically explain tissue engineering based on biomimetic membranes, hydrogels, fibers, and three-dimensionally printed nanocomposites. However, despite the tremendous progress in biomimetic nanocomposites described herein, further studies are needed before these materials reach clinical use.